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. 2020 Jul 10;17(14):4977.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17144977.

Establishment of a Palliative Care Consultation Service (PCCS) in an Acute Hospital Setting

Peter Tom Engel  1 , Tharshika Thavayogarajah  2 , Dennis Görlich  3 , Philipp Lenz  1
Affiliations

Establishment of a Palliative Care Consultation Service (PCCS) in an Acute Hospital Setting

Peter Tom Engel et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background and study aims: Acute health service requires focused palliative care (PC). This study was performed to provide guidance for the establishment of a palliative care consultation service (PCCS). Patients and methods: This study was conceived as a retrospective single-center study for observing, analyzing and evaluating the initial setup of a PCCS from 1 May 2015 to 31 May 2018. Patients from Muenster University Hospital with advanced life-limiting diseases, identified to require PC, were included. Results: PCCS was requested from various departments, for between 20 and 80 patients per month, corresponding to a total of 2359 for the study period. Requests were highest in internal medicine (27.3%), gynecology (18.1%) and radiotherapy (17.6%). Time to referral was significantly shorter in departments with special PCCS ward rounds (6 ± 9 vs. 12 ± 22 days, p < 0.001). The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue, pain and loss of appetite. Pain was frequently localized in the stomach (20.4%), back (17.1%), or in the head and neck area (14.9%). After the first PCCS consultation, 254 patients (90%) reported sufficient pain relief after 48 h. An introduction/modification of painkiller medication, which was recommended for 142 inpatients, was implemented in 57.0% of cases by the respective departments. Overall, the direct realization of PCCS recommendations reached only 50% on average. Conclusions: Besides an analysis of the ability to address the symptoms of the referred patients by the PCCS, this study highlights the importance of the interaction between PCCS and other departments. It further elucidates the role and possibilities of this service both in regular ward rounds and individual staff contacts.

Keywords: early integration; palliative care; palliative care consultation service.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Algorithm of palliative care consultation service (PCCS) inclusion and analysis of patient number development as well as departmental allocation. Algorithm detailing how to match PCCS and a patient‘s situative need for palliative care (A). Patient number dynamics over the entire period of study (B). Pie chart comparing the amounts of patients referred to the PCCS by respective departments (C). “Other” includes nuclear medicine, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, orthopedics, psychiatry, trauma surgery, dermatology, head and neck surgery, anesthesiology and ear, nose and throat medicine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Evaluation of pain location, the burden of presented symptoms, and the ECOG performance status of referred patients at the first consultation with PCCS. Schematic overview of frequencies for the different pain locations of referred patients (A). ECOG status (0–4) of referred patients (B). Heatmap showing the burden of symptoms presented at the first PCCS consultation on a scale of stable (1), slightly reduced (2), reduced (3), greatly reduced (4) and unbearable (5) (C).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation of the frequency of symptoms presented by patients referred to the PCCS and the respective departments.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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